Deku stood by the doors to the entrance exam. "Right, let's start! Get moving! There are no countdowns in real battles. Run, run, run, listeners! You're wasting airtime here." Present Mic's booming voice froze him in place for a second, before he realised everyone had already taken off.

He took off, loudly lamenting his slow reaction time as he attempted to catch up to the others. He ran his way through the streets behind the others. 'You can do this, you'll be fine, you have All Might's power!'

Before long, he found himself face-to-face with a 1-pointer robot. He tried to move, but was frozen in place by fear. Luckily, the robot quickly exploded as a twink's stomach beam cut through it. 'Holy shit, was that a laser?'

"We make a great team, you being the decoy. It's a shame I won't be seeing you much longer. Adieu!" The twink quickly took off down a side road at speeds that could put the Iida family to shame. Deku found himself standing in the middle of the road, still in shock, as Present Mic piped up again.

"Six minutes and two seconds left! Hurry it up!" Deku panicked, looking around at the litter of destroyed robots around him. 'Shit, I need points and fast!'

He noticed a girl in a white-and-black costume, the one who'd stopped him from tripping earlier, crushing a group of robots with her levitation abilities. "Release! Ok, that should be 28 points."

"That makes 45!" A boy with engines in his legs kicked a robot into a wall, shattering it into pieces.

'Fuck, how do they have so many points already?'

"32!"

"21!"

"37!"

Deku's head was on a swivel as he looked around, desperately searching for bots to destroy. He knew that at such a rate he had no chance of getting any points, much less passing. Different students used various different tactics. Some used their sensory abilities, some their sheer power, and the best of them used a combination. To the teachers observing, it appeared a promising group. Of course, there was still one more test left to be released.

The ground began shaking as the massive 0 pointer rose up above the buildings. Deku sat, paralysed, staring up at the bot. "2 Minutes! 2 Minutes!" Deku began to frantically crawl away until he heard a noise.

"Ow!" He turned around, seeing the girl from earlier trapped underneath a massive rock. Before he even had a chance to think, he felt power flow into his legs and catapult him up. A similar power surged into his arms as he flew towards the bot's face, punching it back. Three of his limbs flailed helplessly in the wind, but he felt strangely stronger than before. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but it felt more tangible than that. Adrenaline was what he felt as he rushed to save Bakugo months before, and this wasn't that. This felt good, like his whole body was begging for more. More... what?

Before he had the chance to think about this, he felt himself quickly plummeting to the ground. He knew he had overestimated his abilities, unable to use three of his limbs and falling at deadly speeds. He only had one arm to use, and his only possible option was a Detroit Smash. As he pulled his arm back, he felt a stinging pain in his cheek. He began to levitate, before being softly released to the ground. He looked over at the girl with the anti-gravity quirk.

'She's okay! And my arm is fine, I still have a chance to-'

"Time is up!" Deku froze in place, laying down on the ground and suppressing a sob. The boy with the leg engines looked on in both pity and admiration. Deku had done the right thing, but at the cost of his own admission.

Recovery Girl showed up on the scene, passing out gummies to the students until she reached Deku. "Oh my, what damage. And from your own quirk?" She bent over and helped his recovery, his bones quickly reforming.